[solops]

The solopian position:

As I write the war has begun. I have little doubt that the United States will prevail in an overwhelming fashion. However, this misconceived war with Iraq needs to be brought to a quick and successful conclusion. The items publicly offered by the Bush Administration as casus belli are patently inadequate as justification for a full scale war, particularly in this case, since we have tolerated Hussein and his weapons for decades. However, those items do offer additional proof to the mountain of evidence that Saddam Hussein is an evil, murderous thug who has had biological and chemical weapons for over twenty years and who may have nuclear weapons now. It is not, perhaps unfortunately, the American way to launch an unprovoked war against anyone based on the fear of what they might do. The correct course of action was to have Hussein and his henchmen removed by covert means or to wait for them to act overtly against us. I am dismayed by the clumsy thought processes evidenced by the preference for an expensive, flashy and unjustified war as opposed to quieter and much cheaper methods of achieving national security goals. Most importantly, if there are good, unpublicized reason to fight Iraq, make them public. Our government has not deserved unquestioning trust for 30 years, so tell us the whole story for I want to support them.

Now that the mistake has been made, a greater danger has been created in the United Nations. China, France and others, each for their own reasons, may use our actions as fodder to create a new cold war, rallying the jealous or ignorant masses of the Third and even Second worlds against us. International commerce will be made more difficult for us and trade will become the great weapon of the next decade. Countries like France will leverage themselves into the commercial gaps they will create by fanning hatred of the USA. New economic giants will be created to compete with us, in part by supplying enemies such as China in exchange for support. China and India will be ideally situated to play both sides, given their huge domestic markets, and they will surely use the opportunity to create or become major economic competitors to the American industrial juggernaut. This will not happen quickly or completely. We have our own supporters as well, but our relative power will be diminished and a more dangerous world will be a result. We may even see the legal and political precedents we are setting used against us by our competitors, using the UN as a legal tool. Since war on Iraq is to be pursued, the most logical course for the USA to take in furtherance of its own long term protection and benefit is to withdraw from the United Nations and let it collapse before it can become self-sustaining without our support. With that forum removed, not only does Washington become more important in world affairs, but a forum for our foes is removed.

The war on Iraq and Hussein has created a morass. I don’t even want to think about the quagmire presented by post-Hussein regional politics and Iraqi reconstruction. War is an evil thing, a Last resort at best and this was not yet the time for it. End the war quickly to minimize the political and moral damage……And worry about Korea.